Netherlands: Rutte seeks coalition with Labour

Euronews

Dutch Prime Minister and Liberal Party leader, Mark Rutte, says he wants to form a government with the Labour Party and possibly with the Socialists.

Rutte’s VVD party narrowly won Wednesday’s election but failed to get a majority. They took just 41 of the 150 seats in the Dutch Parliament’s lower house, two more than Labour, which is led by Diederik Samsom.

The vote was a triumph for the two pro-European parties and between them they could form a majority government and work on their joint goal of a pan-European solution to the debt crisis.

The main sticking point now will be their very different views on austerity measures.

The major casualty from the vote was Geert Wilders’ right-wing Freedom Party which ran a eurosceptic campaign and won just 15 seats, down from 24 previously, to finish joint third with the Socialists.